Rutgers Observes Black History Month 2018
Students, faculty and staff will celebrate with a wide range of cultural and educational activities, including screenings, performances and lectures
Rutgers University will celebrate Black History Month 2018 with a wide range of cultural and educational activities, including:
Rutgers–New Brunswick
January 28, 7 p.m. The Black Student Union hosts Black Heritage Month Opening Ceremonies. Busch Campus Center, Piscataway.
February 1, 7 p.m. The Paul Robeson Cultural Center presents "All Black: A Space Dedicated to Black Joy", a gathering for black students, staff and faculty to celebrate the beginning of Black History Month. Paul Robeson Cultural Center, Piscataway.
February 2, noon. The Paul Robeson Cultural Center hosts "Black Graduate School: A Lunch Roundtable" for undergraduate students thinking about attending graduate school. Paul Robeson Cultural Center, Piscataway.
February 2, 4 p.m. Student Access and Educational Equity and RU-1st host RU-1st Friday, a monthly mixer open to RU-1st students, faculty and staff. College Avenue Student Center, New Brunswick.
February 3, 7 p.m. The American Studies Department presents "An Evening of Gospel Choirs" to celebrate the life of Pastor Marion C. Hannah. Voorhees Chapel, New Brunswick.
February 7, 11:30 a.m. The Department of Sociology hosts Ellis Monk, assistant professor of Sociology at Princeton University, for a lecture on his research featured in the Social Problems article, "Consequences of 'Race and Color' in Brazil" and his 2015 AJS article, "The Cost of Color: Skin Color, Discrimination, and Health among African-Americans" as part of the Sociology Department Colloquia series. Davison Hall, New Brunswick.
February 12, 7:30 p.m. A Conversation with Tarana Burke: #MeToo, Activism & Ending Sexual Violence. College Avenue Gym, New Brunswick.
February 13, 4 p.m. The Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy hosts reporters Topher Sanders of ProPublica and Benjamin Conarck of the Florida Times-Union to discuss their “Walking While Black” investigative series. Civic Square, New Brunswick.
February 15, 6 p.m. Paul Robeson Cultural Center, Major Events and Programs, Residence Life, TWESE, RU PuBLACations, Black Student Union, MAPS, Black Men’s Collective and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated host a free premiere screening and discussion of the film Black Panther. Rutgers Cinema, Piscataway.
February 17, 7 p.m. The Black Men's Collective hosts its annual Comedy Show. College Avenue Student Center, New Brunswick.
February 19, 8 p.m. The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs and the Cultural Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities present a symposium on "Black Queer Identities and Experiences at HBCUs and PWIs". College Avenue Student Center, New Brunswick.
February 19, 9 p.m. The Honors College and the Paul Robeson Cultural Center present a film screening and discussion of Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of HBCUs. Honors College, New Brunswick.
February 20, 8:30 a.m. Student Access and Educational Equity hosts an RU-1st Forum featuring a panel of national experts who will speak on the affairs of first-generation students and programs that support this population. College Avenue Student Center, New Brunswick.
February 21, 5 p.m. A free screening of Spike Lee's Four Little Girls followed by a guest speaker, Dale Long, and a panel discussion of The Influence of Social Media on Civic Activism at Rutgers Cinema, Piscataway. The event is sponsored by the Department of Library and Information Science, Paul Robeson Cultural Center, Undergraduate Academic Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
February 21, 6:30 p.m. Student Access and Educational Equity hosts Baraki Sellers, one of the youngest state representatives and the youngest black elected official in the U.S., as part of the James Dickson Carr Lecture Series. College Avenue Student Center, New Brunswick.
February 22, 5 p.m. Interpreting American History Graduate Workshop and Lecture Series presents a free screening of An Outrage, a documentary about lynching in the American South. The filmmakers will attend for a Q&A with the audience following the film. Discussion will be moderated by history Ph.D candidate Jerrad Pacatte. 301 Van Dyck Hall, College Avenue, New Brunswick.
February 23, 7 a.m. Student Access and Educational Equity celebrates National TRIO Day by participating in the Read to the Youth Literacy Campaign. Rutgers TRIO programs will read in the Plainfield Public School District to focus on reading and literacy improvement.
February 24, noon. Rutgers Residence Life, Paul Robeson Cultural Center and the Center for Latino Arts and Culture host "Hairitage Conference: A Celebration of Black and Latinx Hair/History." Livingston Student Center, Piscataway.
February 24, 7 p.m. Twese: The Organization of African Students and Friends of Africa holds its annual Twese Fashion Show. College Avenue Student Center, New Brunswick.
February 25. Rutgers NAACP hosts a banquet to celebrate the 42nd Annual NAACP Founder's Day. Livingston Student Center, Piscataway.
February 26, 3 p.m. The Paul Robeson Cultural Center hosts a trip to Barclays Center for a Brooklyn Nets vs. Chicago Bulls basketball game. Barclays Center, Brooklyn.
February 26. Rutgers University–New Brunswick Pre-Law Student Association hosts Black Activist Jeopardy. Livingston Student Center, Piscataway.
February 27, 7 p.m. The Paul Robeson Cultural Center presents "Black Men's Mentoring Institute." Paul Robeson Cultural Center, Piscatway.
February 27, 5 p.m. The Office of Inclusion and Diversity at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School hosts an Evening with New Jersey's Own "Hidden Figure", with special guest Marion Lee Johnson, a former associate engineer at Boeing, where she worked in the Launch Systems Branch on NASA's Apollo Saturn V rocket. Clinical Academic Building, New Brunswick.
For more information on events, click here.
Rutgers–Camden
January 31, 5 p.m. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion presents "Courageous Conversations: The 'N-Word.' " Student Works Gallery, Camden.
February 1, 12:45 p.m. The Africana Studies Program hosts Sandra Turner-Barnes, executive director of the Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission, for a presentation titled “Critical, Little Known Truths, Regarding African Enslavement within the State of New Jersey.” Campus Center, Camden.
February 1, 6 p.m. The Offices of the Chancellor, Campus Center, Civic Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion, Student Involvement and the African Studies Program present the Ida B. Wells-Barnett keynote lecture by M.K. Asante, author of the critically acclaimed Buck: A Memoir. Asante is a bestselling author, award-winning filmmaker, recording artist, and professor. The book received a Sundance™ Feature Film Grant to be adapted into a movie, which is currently in development. Campus Center, Camden.
February 3. The Office of Student Involvement takes a field trip to the African American History Museum in Philadelphia.
February 7, 5 p.m. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Club 26 present "More than MLK: LGBTQ+ in Black History." Campus Center, Camden.
February 11, 3 p.m. The Black Catholics and Cultural Diversity Ministry host the “Tri-State Catholic Gospel Concert featuring Choirs from Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.” Walter K. Gordon Theater, Camden.
February 12, 6 p.m. The Africana Studies Program hosts a screening and discussion of the film Timbuktu. Campus Center, Camden.
February 15, 8 p.m. The Office of Student Involvement hosts slam poet Dru Law. Campus Center, Camden.
February 19, 6 p.m. The Office of Student Involvement and Social Work present "To Kneel or Not to Kneel: Sports, Activism, and Social Justice."
February 26, 6 p.m. The Office of Student Involvement and The Office of International Students and Global Programs host a screening and discussion of the film Marshall. Campus Center, Camden.
February 28, 5 p.m. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion hosts a Black History Month closing discussion. Student Works Gallery, Camden.
Rutgers–Newark
February 17, 9:30 a.m. The 38th annual Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series presents “The Space Between the Notes: The Social Life of Music in Black History.” Paul Robeson Campus Center, Newark.
The day’s other lecturers and performers will be:
- Farrah Jasmine Griffin, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies at Columbia University. Griffin's major fields of interest are American and African American literature, music, history and politics. The recipient of numerous honors and awards for her teaching and scholarship, Professor Griffin was a fellow at the New York Public Library Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers in 2006-2007. She is the author of Who Set You Flowin’: The African American Migration Narrative (Oxford, 1995); If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday (Free Press, 2001); and Clawing At the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever (Thomas Dunne, 2008).
- Daphne Brooks, Professor of African American Studies and Theater Studies at Yale University. Professor Brooks is the author of two books: Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910 (Durham, NC: Duke UP), winner of The Errol Hill Award for Outstanding Scholarship on African American Performance from the American Society for Theatre Research; and Jeff Buckley’s Grace (New York: Continuum, 2005). Brooks is currently working on a new book entitled Subterranean Blues: Black Women Sound Modernity (Harvard University Press, forthcoming).
- Alexis Jessica Morrast, celebrated sixteen-year-old jazz singer and recording artist. A native of Newark, and presently residing in Plainfield, Ms. Morrast began singing in church at the age of three and led her first solo in the adult choir by the age of seven. Since that time she has performed on numerous stages including at the U.S. Open, Delta's in New Brunswick, the Central Jersey Jazz Festival (featuring trumpet player Sean Jones), the Rutgers Garden Summer Solstice Jazz &Wine, NJPAC (with Christian McBride), South Jazz Kitchen, Warmdaddy's in Philadelphia, and Harlem’s world-renowned Apollo Theater, where she was twice named winner of Amateur Night and later returned as a special guest to perform during the Harlem Week Festival.
February 19, 6 p.m. The Department of History, the Department of African American and African Studies, the Program in Women's and Gender Studies, and the Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience present "Black Women Writing Black Histories", a round-table discussion featuring dynamic black women historians whose scholarship engages the black past. Paul Robeson Campus Center, Newark.
February 21, 6 p.m. The Department of African American and African Studies presents a film screening and discussion of Whose Streets? John Cotton Dana Library, Newark.
February 27, 6:30 p.m. An exclusive screening of The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X. Newark was selected as one of a handful of cities nationally to host this Black History Month event sponsored by the Smithsonian Channel in partnership with Altice Connects, the NAACP, The Links, Inc., and Rutgers University – Newark. Through Malcolm X’s own speeches, newscasts, and rarely seen archival footage, the film documents moments and ideas that define his enduring and complex legacy, and messages that have regained urgency across America and around the world. Paul Robeson Campus Center, Rutgers – Newark. RSVP here.